The University of Miami is a leading private research university (not, note, a public university) with over 12,000 degree-seeking undergraduates in Miami, Florida. They group students into 9 undergraduate schools and colleges, maintaining a small student to faculty ratio of only 11:1. Despite having such a large undergraduate student body, half of all undergraduate classes have 17 or fewer students. The acceptance rate is about 19%.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a highly-respected large public research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Students love Madison for mixing strong academics with broad opportunities and an iconic culture. Greek life and athletics are big at Wisconsin, and help to define the social experience whether or not you want to join a Greek organization or cheer on the Badgers in basketball. There are nearly 37,000 undergraduate students, and they receive over 65,000 applications for first-year admission annually. The overall acceptance rate, including in-state and out-of-state applicants, is 45%. Remember though, if you are applying from outside of Wisconsin your chances of admission are undoubtedly far lower than that 45%. Way back in 2018, the university shared that they aimed to admit 2/3rd of Wisconsin applicants. Using some back-of-the-envelope math, that means that about 25% of out-of-state applicants were accepted to reach a 45% overall acceptance rate. 

Williams is an iconic liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Home to about 2,000 undergraduate students, the college is particularly popular with students pursuing majors in biology, psychology, history, mathematics, political science, computer science, English, art, and most of all economics. This highlights the intellectual diversity of the Williams community, with students pursuing the hard sciences and the humanities hand-in-hand. At the core of this is the Williams liberal arts foundation. This has made Williams a coveted school for top-performing students, driving down the acceptance rate to only 8.5%.

Johns Hopkins University is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s actually the first research university in America. As you might guess, research is a pretty big deal there. They are especially known for their Biomedical engineering and public health majors. The school is also popular with Pre-meds. In the past, their acceptance rate has been around 8%; however, they did not release their acceptance rate for the class of 2026.

Santa Clara University (SCU) is a private Jesuit university located in, you guessed it, Santa Clara. It’s also the oldest college in California. SCU is known for their social sciences (just look up how many politicians and fancy government people have gone here – it’s wild!) and business programs and the proximity to Silicon Valley is great for students who want to break into tech. We think SCU is a bit of a sleeper school, and think it’ll jump in popularity over the next few years. Last cycle, SCU had a record-breaking number of applications and had an acceptance rate of 47%. They’re also test-optional through this year, and it’s good to note that 41% of admitted students didn’t submit scores.

Located in Beyonce’s hometown of Houston, Rice University is a private research university known for their very strong and very competitive STEM programs, as well as a solid business school. Rice is a very hard school to get into; last cycle, they had a 16% acceptance rate for ED and EDII and a 7% RD acceptance rate. Rice is also continuing their test-optional policy this year, but we don’t recommend applying without scores – it’s an 8% acceptance rate overall, and their middle 50% for the ACT and SAT were 34-36 and 1500-1560, respectively.

Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is known for pairing a well-respected academic program with a lively and much-beloved social scene centered on Greek Life. They’re also well-respected for offering unique programs that augment the value of your college degree. Lehigh offers a variety of 4+1 programs (masters and bachelors degree in 5 years) to their 5,800 undergraduates across the College of Business, College of Education, College of Engineering, and the College of Health. The Lehigh Launch program kicks off your college experience with a semester in the American West or Santiago, Chile. These programs help make Lehigh so popular. The acceptance rate for the class of 2027 was just under 30%. In 2024, the university saw a 30% increase in Early Decision applications, reducing the acceptance. Basically, it’s only getting more popular. 

Located in gorgeous Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado College (CC) is a very, very unique school that attracts unique students. They’re known for their innovative Block Plan, where students immerse themselves in one class for a whole month, which allows for creative applications like going to D.C. to study policy, camping under the stars for astronomy students, living in the mountains while you get your rock on, or spending a whole month learning nothing but Spanish. Students who are drawn to CC are like, seriously drawn to the school. They’re known for having a crazy low RD acceptance rate (less than 10%), and accept the vast majority of their students from ED, EA, and ED 2. CC is also test optional, and has a very wide range in their middle 50 (1250-1450 SAT, 29-34 ACT). This is because CC says: “Colorado College does not penalize those who submit test scores and will ignore scores that do not strengthen an applicant's candidacy.” Very unique!